Stratford's touch rugby ladies lead the way

STRATFORD Ladies sit top of the North East Midlands Touch League following a third-placed finish in the third tournament of the campaign at Camp Hill.

The first match against Newbold Falcons saw Rachel McGovern cross the whitewash twice and Helen Clifford also score in a 3-0 win.

The second match against Wellesbourne proved hard for Stratford as a strong Wellesbourne side ran in two tries through some poor defence and Stratford’s heads then dropped, resulting in a 5-1 loss.

Stratford picked themselves up and won the last pool game 2-0 against Old Laurentians as Clifford and Katie Tompkins scored the tries.

These results put Stratford second in the pool and gave them a chance to compete against Redditch for a spot in the first/second place play-off.

The score at the end of the match was a 2-2 draw after tries for Clifford and Tompkins. In that situation, where a result is needed, touch games play a ‘drop off’ sudden death.

Teams start the extra time with one less player and drop another one every minute until a try is scored.

Down to three players, Redditch were able to get the ball around the Stratford defence and book their slot in the 1st/2nd place play-off.

They eventually won that as well, winning their first tournament of the season against Wellesbourne who claim a deserved second place.

Stratford played Camp Hill for 3rd/4th place and this resulted in another ‘drop off’ after a 1-1 draw, with Tompkins on the mark for Stratford.

This time, though, Clifford was the one who found that last ounce of energy in tired legs and ran around for the winner to put Stratford in third place for the tournament and cementing her player of the tournament status.

Stratford coach, Nath Geekie, said: “A third place finish on a day when so much went against us is a good result.

“We had a bit of a slow start, but we showed in parts just how much we can play and pick teams apart with some great attacking scores. The team is yet to finish outside the top three so far this season so the bar has been set high.”

Meanwhile, Wellesbourne delivered some excellent tries to earn themselves second place on the day, winning four of their five games including a thumping 5-1 victory over Stratford.

Bourne tries came from Catriona Rollason, Kara Boal and Katherine Hollian. Bourne also beat Newbold Falcons 2-0, Old Laurentrians 2-0 and Camp Hill 3-1 before eventually losing out to Redditch in the final.

Rollason’s excellent try-scoring record earned her the title of Wellesbourne’s player of the tournament.

Standings: 1 Stratford 27pts, 2 Camp Hill 26, 3 Redditch 24, 4 Wellesbourne 23; 5 Newbold 19, 6 Rugby St Andrews 13, 7 Berkswell & Balsall 11, 8 Old Laurentians 10, 9 Old Coventrians 2.